Fallacies

A fallacy is an error in reasoning resulting in a misconception, and possibly a false conclusion. A fallacious argument can be deductively invalid (a formal fallacy) or one that has false premises or insufficient inductive strength (an informal fallacy). Or the argument can be irrelevant to the issue being discussed.

A deductively invalid argument is one where the conclusion does not logically follow from the premises. That is , the conclusion can be false even if the premises are true. Thus a formal fallacy is fallacious only because of its logical form, regardless of its content.

On the other hand, an informal fallacy is fallacious because of its content, regardless of its form. An example of an informal fallacy is a conclusion that smoking does not cause cancer based on the anecdotal evidence of only one healthy smoker.

Here is a list of some of the more common fallacies, plus a few new ones. Also included are some confirmation biases and rhetorical tactics.

Formal fallacies

• Ad hoc fallacy
• Affirming the consequent
• Affirming a disjunct
• Animistic fallacy
• Appeal to emotion
• Appeal to hypocrisy
• Appeal to ignorance
• Appeal to the minority
• Appeal to nature fallacy
• Appeal to novelty
• Appeal to ridicule
• Appeal to spite
• Argument from analogy
• Argument from anecdote
• Argument from authority
• Argument from consequences
• Argument from fallacy
• Argument from Faith (in prep)
• Argument from false or misleading authority
• Argument from popularity
• Argument from tradition
• Argument to moderation
• Association fallacy
• Begging the question
• Can does not imply ought
• Conjunction fallacy
• David and Goliath Fallacy
• Denying the antecedent
• Non sequitur

Informal fallacies

• Base rate fallacy
• Circular reasoning fallacy
• Common sense fallacy
• Confusing cause and effect
• Confusing correlation with causation
• Conspiracy theory
• Content-free management
• Co-ordination fallacy
• Criticism of religion is not bigotry, let alone racism (in prep)
• Cultural universals vs cultural relativism
• Doctrine of absurdity
• Ecological fallacy
• Egocentric predicament
• Einstellung effect
• Epistemic equivalence (in prep)
• Equivocation fallacy 
• Etymological fallacy
• Fallacies of Composition and Division
• Fallacy of Inferred Insensitivity
• False analogy
• False balance
• False dilemma
• False equivalence
• Faulty generalisation
• Faulty risk assessment
• Fixation error (in preparation)
• Formality fallacy (in prep)
• Fragmentation of meanings (in preparation)
• Gambler’s fallacy
• Genetic fallacy
• Greenwashing
• Guilt by association fallacy
• Historian’s fallacy
• ‘I’m entitled to my opinion’
• Independence of irrelevant alternatives
• Inflation of conflict fallacy
• Invincible ignorance (in prep)
• ‘It’s only a theory’
• Noble cause corruption
• Non-apology apology
• Not even wrong
• No true Scotsman
• Obscurantism
• Perfect solution fallacy
• Poisoning the well
• Policy vs rule confusion
• Presentism fallacy
• Proposals are not propositions (in prep)
• Quantitative fallacy
• Recommendation fallacy 
• Red herring fallacy
• Reductio ad absurdum fallacy
• Reification fallacy
• Relativism
• Reverse causation fallacy
• Russell’s Teapot
• Scientific Conspiracy Fallacy
• The Folly of Scientism
• ‘That’s just semantics’ (in prep)
• Semmelweis reflex
• Sharpshooter fallacy
• Slacktivism
• Special Pleading
• The Slippery Slope
• Supply/Demand Fallacy (in prep)
• Stacking the deck fallacy
• Sunk Cost Fallacy
• There are no ‘judicial inquiries’
• Three more fallacies of relevance
• Travel expenses are not ‘entitlements’
• Tribal truth fallacy
• Tu quoque
• Two Twin Fallacies
• ’You can’t stop progress’ (in preparation)
• Zero Sum Fallacy
• Cognitive biases
• Blaming the victim
• Bystander effect
• Category error
• Centrifugal force fiction
• Chemophobia
• Chronological snobbery
• Collecting the wrong information
• Confirmation bias
• Consent to risk
• Denialism
• Doublethink
• Dunning–Kruger effect
• Glittering generality
• Groupthink
• Halo effect
• Herd behaviour
• Preference Failure
• Pseudoprofundity
• Psychologism
• Technophobia
• Wishful thinking
• Rhetorical tactics
• Argument by Gibberish
• Galileo gambit
• Human accident fallacy
• Insinuation by questions
• Moral equivalence
• Moving the goalposts
• Psychobabble
• Red herring fallacy
• Straw Man Fallacy
• Technobabble
• Virtue signalling
• Weasel words
• Whataboutery
• Why anti-vaxxers get it so wrong

More fallacies are available at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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